Kati Cotek saw her serve returned into the net and let out a holler. Consider that sound announcement: the Cold Spring Harbor girls tennis team is serious about defending its Long Island championship.

The Seahawks started fast by winning the first set in four of the five matches and then held off a pair of comeback bids by Friends Academy to secure a 4-1 victory for the Nassau County small school team championship on Monday at Hofstra.

Cold Spring Harbor (8-8) will meet Suffolk champion Bayport-Blue Point (14-2) Tuesday at Syosset for the Long Island crown and a trip to the USTA National Tennis Center for a state semifinal on Nov. 3. The Seahawks defeated the Phantoms 5-0 for their first Island title in a match closer than the final score.

“Bayport will be very motivated after last year, but we won’t let them get in our heads,” Cotek, the team’s lone senior starter, said.

“I think we can take them again,” Cold Spring Harbor coach Melissa McLees said. “Bayport-Blue Point has a bunch of great players who played us tough last year, but I think we can take them again.”

The Seahawks’ victory began to take shape when sophomores Dylan Savarese and Stevie Sullivan managed to hold off a second-set charge from the Quakers’ Siena Smith and Sarabeth Levin for a pivotal 6-1, 7-6 (2) win at second doubles.

Playing in a seven-match format during the regular season CSH beat Friends twice, first 4-3 and then 5-2, but both times won the third and fourth doubles matches. The county final was played with the state tournament’s five-match format, introducing an element of unpredictability.

“With less people playing, everyone had to be counted on more in this,” Sullivan said. “We needed to end it in the second set.”

“Unfortunately we’re usually the last match going and taking things to a third set,” Savarese said. “We didn’t need a comeback this time and that was big.”

Junior Kami Cotek warded off an oncoming headache to win the first second of her third singles match against Friends’ Teah Login and required a brief injury timeout before resuming the match. Login won the first three games of the second set before Kami Cotek regained form and finished a 6-3, 6-4 win.

“I didn’t shake the headache, so I just focused on returning everything,” Kami Cotek said. “(Login) has an incredible forehand so I just tried to get everything to her backhand and hope she’d make some mistakes.”

Moments later Kati Cotek sealed the victory with her win.

Eighth-grader Taylor Winthrop and sophomore Kaitlyn Hanna of Cold Spring Harbor held off Friends’ Erica Na and Grace Parziale, 6-3, 7-6 (5) for the fourth Seahawks win.

Senior Skylar Cohen downed Brooke Winthrop 6-3, 6-4 at first singles for Friends Academy (3-13). Cohen finished the season 10-5 in singles play.

“Two years ago Friends beat us in this match and last year we overcame them,” Kati Cotek said. “If we’d only had the 4-3 win this season, we might not have been as confident. But having also beat them 5-2 the second time, we felt we could beat them when we faced them again (in this format).”